David Geringas & Ian Fountain - Malincolia: Works for Cello and Piano by Edvard Grieg and Jean Sibelius (2015)

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David Geringas & Ian Fountain - Malincolia: Works for Cello and Piano by Edvard Grieg and Jean Sibelius (2015)

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The Italian word malinconia was very commonly used in the nineteenth century as a title for melancholy pieces. Yet the idea of malinconia covered a myriad of romantic notions, so that simply translating it as "melancholy" does not do it justice. It subsumes many other emotional states as well - all kinds of dejection, gloom, unknown sadness, desperation, depression and even frustration. Each language has evolved its own terms, and interpretations of the word itself also differ from region to region. Malinconia in sunny Italy or Spain is quite different from melancholy in Norway and in Finland, where the winters are harsh and long. The Nordic variant is expressed here in various musical examples; words alone are anyway inadequate.

Tchaikovsky Competition winner and Rostropovich pupil Geringas makes a muscular and forthright impression in the Grieg Sonata, close to the directness of his former teacher in a live 1964 Aldeburgh partnership with Sviatoslav Richter (only available on YouTube now but needed back on disc). Such an approach resituates the work in the mainstream European (that is to say German) tradition but pays less attention to the softer colours and humour (the use of the Halling) that are surely the basis of Grieg’s palette here, even in more anguished moments. The result is to make the work less individual by overstressing form at the expense of content. Additionally, the balance between cello and piano, not greatly helped by the German studio recording, is competitive rather than blending.

Geringas is closer to the idiom of the two Sibelius pieces, the cello part of Malinconia sounding more than usual like an offcut from one of the symphonies. He revels in its difficulties and coldness more than his pianist. In the shorter Griegs both men give more complete pictures of the music than in the Sonata, although the cellist’s suggestive rubato makes Anitra a better dancer than his partner’s portrait of her does. The Allegretto transcription of the Op 45 Violin Sonata goes especially well and Geringas nicely points the sorrow in his own transcription of ‘Solveig’s Song’. (Profil should remind their note-writer that Peer Gynt’s ‘Morning Mood’ is a picture of Saharan, not Nordic nature.)

There have been now three new recordings of the Grieg Sonata in the last three months, two of them with accompanying cuadrilla of the lesser cello pieces. This is certainly another handy round-up of that music but the performances, although technically fluent, lack the last degree of identification with the composer’s colours and style found, for example, in the Brantelid/Hadland BIS collection reviewed last May.

Review by Mike Ashman, Gramophone

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David Geringas & Ian Fountain - Malincolia: Works for Cello and Piano by Edvard Grieg and Jean Sibelius (2015)

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David Geringas & Ian Fountain - Malincolia: Works for Cello and Piano by Edvard Grieg and Jean Sibelius (2015)

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David Geringas & Ian Fountain - Malincolia: Works for Cello and Piano by Edvard Grieg and Jean Sibelius (2015)

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David Geringas & Ian Fountain - Malincolia: Works for Cello and Piano by Edvard Grieg and Jean Sibelius (2015)

Close